The Politics and Practice of Religious Diversity: National Contexts, Global Issues

Description

The Politics and Practice of Religious Diversity engages with one of the most characteristic features of modern society. An increasingly prominent and potentially contentious phenomenon, religious diversity is intimately associated with contemporary issues such as migration, human rights, social cohesion, socio-cultural pluralisation, political jurisdiction, globalisation, and reactionary belief systems. This edited collection of specially-commissioned chapters provides an unrivalled geographical coverage and multidisciplinary treatment of the socio-political processes and institutional practices provoked by, and associated with, religious diversity. Alongside chapters treating religious diversity in the ‘BRIC’ countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, are contributions which discuss Australia, Finland, Mexico, South Africa, the UK, and the United States. This book provides an accessible, distinctive and timely treatment of a topic which is inextricably linked with modern society’s progressively diverse and global trajectory. Written and structured as an accessible volume for the student reader, this book is of immediate interest to both academics and laypersons working in mainstream and political sociology, sociology of religion, human geography, politics, area studies, migration studies and religious studies. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of illustrations List of contributors The politics and practice of religious diversity: national contexts, global issues Part I The ‘BRIC’ Nations 1 Friends and foes of the ‘Russian world’: the post-Soviet state’s management of religious diversity 2 The challenges of managing religious diversity in India: between hegemonic domination and the quest for equality 3 Islam and the state in Brazil: reflections on the freedom of a minority religion 4 Religious diversity and the state in China Part II Governance 5 Governance and religious diversity in Australia: multifaith relations and religious instruction in the State of Victoria 6 Managing religious diversity in Finland: from church law to governance networks 7 Religious diversity and the shifting sands of political prioritization: reflections on the UK context Part III Globalizing modernity 8 The globalization of religious advocacy: implications for US foreign policy 9 Diversity, death, and divinity in Mexico: a political-religious economy of La Santa Muerte 10 State regulation or ‘public religion’?: religious diversity in post-apartheid South Africa Index